I've just had surgery - and this is why

I had my PCL reconstruction two days ago.  I'm going to blog about the experience but, first, this is my story of how I tore my PCL and why I needed the operation.


Six months ago I was blissfully ignorant as to what a PCL was. 

My story is this - I felt something snap in my leg when I was skiing in March this year. My leg went floppy and caused me to fall (I think I hit an icy patch and turned badly but I really don't know). I was stretchered off the mountain and an MRI scan confirmed it to be an isolated PCL complete tear. My holiday was ruined and I was pretty much housebound for five weeks following my return to the UK.

I started with physio and hydrotherapy in April shortly before returning to work and almost (but not quite) had full movement in my knee five months down the line. I still felt very injured though and had pain (mainly on the inside of my knee) and swelling.  Some days were better than others - some days I would limp, some days I would walk fine. I could just about sit cross-legged although not comfortably for very long and I could almost touch my bum with my heel whilst doing a hamstring curl - although I had  to release it very slowly as it hurt to do so!! I had started to get a cracking/clicking in my knee when walking which I found really uncomfortable.

I'd started swimming (although sometimes this was diffficult but I was just desperate to get fit again) and had even tried running both with and without the bulky brace. The running was hard though and I sadly had to pull out of the half marathon I was due to run in October. Despite this, I thought I was doing ok but then a few weeks ago I stood up, my knee cracked and it completely gave way. It had been very delicate since and I felt like progress had stopped.

I'd met with my consultant a couple of times and he'd tried to put me off having the surgery. It's a technically difficult operation and rarely performed. My consultant described the surgery as 'challenging' and a 'big deal'. But, unless I was prepared to give up my active lifestyle, then a reconstruction was the only option.

My surgery was scheduled for 8 September (two days ago) and I'll write about the experience shortly in my next blog.